THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8173, 5 July 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1906.

The San Francisco earthquake may yet prove to be an important factor in determining the type of oanai to be constructed across the isthmus of Panama. At any rate, it materially influenced the decision of the committee of the United States Senate in favour of the sea-level oanal.. The isthmus is in a well-known earthquake region and the committee in its report observes that the parts of a oanal structure that would be most exposed to injury by a passing earthquake or a violent

movement of the earth's surface would be the looks. The walls of these would be many hundreds of feet long—those at Qatun from two to three thousand feet—t»nd some of them 75 feet high, and entirely unsupported on the one aide save for part of their height by the water in the looks. If these walls should be moved by a seismio disturbance the probable result would be their leaning so as to prevent the closing of the gates, but the likeliest effeot would be the fracture of the locks, the repairing of which would cost much time, thus causing interruption of traffic, or even the abandonment of the canal. Ships of all classes, it is declared, could be passed through a sea-level canal in eight hours, whereas in a look oanal the locks alone would take four hours to pass. The cost of maintenance of a sea-level oanal is estimated at £368,000, and that of a lflGk canal at £466,000. The report further states that in time of war, with a sea-level oanal free of obstacles, a hundred warships of average size moving iu one direction could be passed from ocean to ocean in less than a day: also that an enemy with explosives could destroy a lock oanal much more easily than a sea-level oanal. The first cost of the sea-level canal, huwever, would be at least £12,000,0000 more than the estimate for a lock canal, and the time occupied in construction would be four or five years longer. These were the considerations that speoially appealed to the House of Representatives when it deoided reoently to approve of the lock type. The final decision has yet to be reached, and as Congress has already obtained reports, all different, from six different sets of experts, it may well feel inclined to postpone determination until the latest possible moment